Pay your Corporation Tax bill

Overview

Deadlines

The deadline for your payment will depend on your taxable profits.

Taxable profits of up to £1.5 million

You must pay your Corporation Tax 9 months and 1 day after the end of your accounting period. Your accounting period is usually your financial year, but you may have 2 accounting periods in the year you set up your company.

Taxable profits of more than £1.5 million

You must pay your Corporation Tax in instalments.

Ways to pay

Make sure you pay HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) by the deadline. They may charge you interest if you don’t pay on time. They’ll pay you interest if you pay your tax early.

The time you need to allow depends on how you pay.

Same day or next day

• online or telephone banking (Faster Payments)
• CHAPS

3 working days

• Bacs
• Direct Debit (if you’ve set one up before)
• Online by debit or credit card
• At your bank or building society
• At the Post Office

5 working days

• Direct Debit (if you haven’t set one up before)

You can’t pay Corporation Tax by post.

Bank details for online or telephone banking, CHAPS, Bacs

You can pay HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) by Faster Payments, CHAPS or Bacs.

The back of your payslip, sent to you by HMRC, tells you which account to use. If you’re not sure, use Cumbernauld.

Reference number

Use your 17-character Corporation Tax payslip reference for the accounting period you’re paying.

You’ll find the payslip reference:

• on the payslip that HMRC sent to you after you submitted your return
• through your company’s HMRC online account - choose ‘View account’ then ‘Accounting period’

How long it takes

Payments made by Faster Payments (online or telephone banking) will usually reach HMRC on the same or next day, including weekends and bank holidays.

CHAPS payments usually reach HMRC the same working day if you pay within your bank’s processing times.

Bacs payments usually take 3 working days.

Overseas accounts

Use these details to pay from an overseas account.

Multiple payments by CHAPS

Contact HMRC if you want to make a single payment to cover more than one company for the same accounting period.

HMRC’s banking address is:

By debit or credit card online

You can pay online.

You’ll pay a 1.5% fee if you use a credit card. The fee isn’t refundable.

Use your 17-character Corporation Tax payslip reference for the accounting period you’re paying.

You’ll find the payslip reference:

• on the payslip that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) sent to you after you submitted your return
• through your company’s HMRC online account - choose ‘View account’ then ‘Accounting period’

How long it takes

Allow 3 working days for your payment to reach HMRC’s bank account.

At your bank or building society

You can pay at a branch by cash or cheque.

You’ll need to use the payslip that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) sends you.

Make your cheque payable to ‘HM Revenue and Customs only’ followed by your 17-character Corporation Tax payslip reference for the accounting period you’re paying.

You can find the payslip reference in a box on the payslip.

Allow 3 working days for your payment to reach HMRC’s bank account.

Direct Debit

Set up and make changes to a Direct Debit through your company’s HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) online account.

Use your 17-character Corporation Tax payslip reference for the accounting period you’re paying.

You can find the payslip reference:

• on the payslip that HMRC sent to you after you submitted your return
• through your company’s HMRC online account - choose ‘View account’ then ‘Accounting period’

How long it takes

Allow 5 working days to process a Direct Debit the first time you set one up.

It should take 3 working days each time you pay once you’ve already authorised a Direct Debit from HMRC.

Payments will appear on your bank statements as ‘HMRC NDDS’.

At the Post Office

You can pay by debit card, cash or cheque made payable to ‘Post Office Ltd’.

Use the payslip that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) sent to you after you submitted your return.

Allow 3 working days for your payment to reach HMRC’s bank account.

Payments for a group of companies

If your company is in a group, you can pay Corporation Tax under a Group Payment Arrangement. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will write to tell you the correct payslip reference.

Phone HMRC to get a reference number if you don’t have one.

Tell HMRC no payment is due

Tell HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) if you have nothing to pay. HMRC will send you payment reminders if you don’t.

You can tell HMRC by either:

• filling in the ‘nil to pay’ form
• sending back the payslip on the reminder HMRC sends you, marked ‘NIL due’

You must still file your company tax return.

Check your payment has been received

Check your HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) online account to see if your payment has been received. It should be updated within a few days of HMRC receiving the payment.